Fir Tree Farmhouse And Attached Outbuildings

Fir Tree Farmhouse and its attached outbuildings are a farmhouse dating from the late 17th century, with extensions made in the 18th century and early to mid-19th century, and a refronting in the mid-19th century. The structure is built from roughly coursed local rubble, likely Dolomitic Conglomerate, with some later 19th-century brick dressings. It features gabled pantile roofs and has rendered and brick stacks at the left end and ridge of the house.

The farmhouse has an original T-plan layout, with a rear left kitchen wing attached to a two-unit front range that includes heated rooms. The entry is through an off-centre lobby, separating the smaller left-hand room from the larger right-hand room. The building is two storeys high and has a three-window range, with segmental heads above a mid-19th-century door and horned 8/8-pane sash windows. The rear wing and flanking 19th-century outshuts have 19th and 20th-century two-light casements.

Inside, the farmhouse retains original features such as chamfered and stop-chamfered beams on the ground floor, 17th and 18th-century plank doors with wrought-iron fittings, and a mid-18th-century china cupboard in the right-hand room with panelled doors and shaped shelves. There is a large open fireplace on the left with a moulded mantelshelf, and a 18th-century moulded surround to a flint-floor fireplace on the right of the axial stack. The roof was rebuilt in the 19th century but still retains elements of the original construction, including staggered butt purlins.

The outbuildings include an early to mid-19th-century coach house or cider house with a loft on the right, featuring a plank loft door above a segmental-arched carriage entry, and the interior contains a 19th-century cider press. To the left are two-storey early to mid-19th-century stables, with a plank loft door above two plank doors that have timber lintels, and timber lintels over two-light casements on each floor. Further to the left are later 19th-century brick and stone outbuildings with a pantile roof. The original farmhouse is an interesting example of a more centralised plan form, marking an early adaptation of this style in the local vernacular architecture.